As callers make voice and video calls, the number of networks that the voice and video calls traverse may span multiple networks or devices that use different codecs. The spanning of multiple networks utilizing different codecs may be due to different networks using different protocols and/or the different networks being managed by different enterprises. For example, a voice call may originate in an enterprise using a first codec and then be sent to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) where the voice call re-encoded using a different codec before the call is completed. In addition, when a user make a voice or video call to another user, the route that voice or video call makes may vary based on various factors, such as congestion, hardware failures, Quality of Service (QoS) parameters, service level agreements, and/or the like.
Sometimes when a voice or video call takes a different route, a different set of codecs are used. Each time a different codec is used for the voice or video call, distortion is inherently introduced into the audio and/or video signal. Depending upon the sequence of codecs that are used for a voice or video call, the quality of the voice or video call may be degraded to a point of where the quality of the voice or video call is unacceptable.
For conference calls with users at various remote locations, the number of different codecs used in the communication path is higher due to the fact that there are a variety of different callers from different locations. Each person on the call may be using different codecs on different networks and devices. When some callers call into the conference call, the codec sequence for the caller's particular communication path may have a high level of distortion when used in combination with other callers on the conference call. To solve this problem, the caller may call in again hoping that a different communication path will be used to get a better call quality.